My column for this week has the potential to be the most controversial column I will write this semester. What I am going to praise today is something that many people have just lost or are in the process of losing. Meanwhile, some people are afraid that this something is being or will be taken away by “big business” or “big government” or even “socialism” or a “welfare state.” What I am going to praise today is private property.

When I was born, my parents were already living in their second or third home, having moved cities a couple of times. I distinctly remember the evening my father came home from work and announced that he had just mailed the last mortgage payment on our house. He had “owned” the house for roughly a decade at this point, but this was the first moment of his life that he did not owe anyone anything concerning his place of residence. If I’m not mistaken, it was probably the first moment in his life that he didn’t owe anyone anything period. My parents still live in that house, and I imagine they will own it until the day(s) they die.

After moving out of my parent’s home, I moved into a college dorm, moved back in with my parents, and finally got a “place of my own” – an apartment with a six month lease. It was the first time I had ever paid rent. It was thus the first time that I had the particular feeling of not owning something which was necessary to my existence as I knew it. After I had lived in that apartment for just over five months, my wife and I closed on a condo. That was 12 days ago, and we are still in the process of moving in.

Now, in the midst of moving and going through the buying process and what not, my wife and I have not exactly been jumping up and down out of sheer joy at the thought of owning our own home, but we have spoken of how blessed we are to own property (at such relatively young ages, no less) a number of times over the past 12 days. The conversation has generally been simple, and we have by no means thought about this in political terms. We really have not even thought about it in economic terms either. Of course, we have thought and talked about the financial aspects of owning a home extensively, but, for the most part, our thoughts on owning a home have been very local.

I know a condo is not exactly like owning a house, and living in a condo is really more like living in an apartment than anything else. Similarly, I know that my wife and I do not yet own our condo like my parents own their house, but it is still very nice to know that the money we pay every month to the mortgage company is not completely lost to us when it is all said and done. I guess, in addition to praising private property, you might say I am praising equity. In that sense, it is nice to be investing money in something practical and useful. (Besides, my portfolio is down 50 percent – no joke, so I am desperate for a worthwhile investment anyway. Lucky for me, my portfolio was worth a pittance to begin with.)

When I began this column a few paragraphs ago, I said that this column had the potential to be very controversial. The reason I said such comes from the fact that, in political circles, it seems like ideologies based on collective ownership and the like are at the forefront right now. It seems like all of the politicos think it would be great if we could all just pay for each other’s debts and bail each other out and collectively spend all our money, all the while making sure that there is always more money to spend.

Now, I am no economist, and I am not a political scientist either. I have studied my share of political philosophy, but I am really, completely ignorant concerning our current economic and political situation. All that to say, I have no clue what our country needs to do to be financially successful collectively or to ensure that its citizens are financially successful individually (I have some ideas, but we won’t go there); however, I do know that I have never heard anyone talk about how terrible it is to have equity and own your own home and maintain your private property to the best of your ability. Sure, people complain about having to go out and buy a new water heater, but I feel like most people would trade the occasional inconvenience of homeownership for the overall satisfaction it brings.

In the end, you do not have to be a genius to understand why people get excited when they buy their first home. Sure, the joy of buying a first home comes largely from the fact that it is a milestone that suggests you are going places or moving up in the world or something like that, but there is also the fact that owning your own home makes you feel secure because it brings a little more of your existence under the realm of your control.

Matt Brumit is a junior Humanities major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].